How To Kill Silverfish Bugs

Silverfish bugs are wingless insects about an inch in size, bluish silver in color and have a hard exoskeleton. They have two long antennas on their head and three prominent tails on the rear. The number of female eggs usually varies depending on their species, and may range from 2-20 eggs a day. They are known to lay eggs at any time of the year which then develop from larva to adults within a period not exceeding 4 months.

How To Determine Silverfish Infestation

Determining silverfish infestation in your home or office can be quite a difficult task because these annoying bugs love hiding in dark and protected places. Additionally, they reproduce very fast. Another thing that makes it hard for home owners to detect silverfish is because they are nocturnal which means that they may remain unnoticed for quite a long period of time. So, how to do you detect them? You can detect them by their tiny pepper like feces, cast skins, feeding damage such as small holes on clothing, wallpaper, cereal boxes and even yellowish stains on your fabric. If you notice feeding damage, then infestation is well established already. They travel long distance in search of food which could also make it a challenge to trace the infestation source. While many people give up the hope of eliminating them, deciding to get rid of these destructive bugs is actually a poor decision.

Where To Find Silverfish

If your home is infested with silverfish, you are most likely going to spot in areas such as bookcase shelves, bathtubs, basements, garages, sinks, behind baseboards, attics and in other dark yet warm and moist areas of your home. In this regard, the common habitats of silverfish are bathrooms, kitchens, laundry rooms, attics and basements. They love the taste of starch found in book bindings, paper that has paste or glue, specific fabrics, cereals, bathroom products, crumbs, flour and plant materials. This is why they are commonly found in the areas mentioned. It is important for homeowners to learn how to get rid of silverfish to keep them away from their homes. So how do you go about it? Keep reading to establish ways of eliminating these annoying and destructive bugs.

Learning How To Get Rid of Silverfish

Sanitation is just one of the ways of getting rid of an existing silverfish infestation. However, it is important for you to note that sanitation cannot work alone to get rid of these bugs. This is especially because silverfish can survive for a long time without food even for up to one year. This means sanitation may only help to prevent cases of re-infestation after eliminating silverfish population. To reduce their populations consider making the environment as less attractive for them as possible.

That aside, there are two major ways of controlling silverfish namely natural and chemical method. Although the two approaches are both effective, chemical agents are much more costly as well as harmful. Chemical agents such as propoxur are available in any garden center or even hardware store. The insecticide should be sprayed behind appliances and other common inhabitants of silverfish. Although these chemicals do not kill silverfish eggs, they are effective in reducing the population. There are other compounds which are commonly used are the ones containing diatoms and have been crushed to obtain dust. This dust is then spread around baseboards as well as on floors of the room. The diatoms usually offer a silicon based spine which acts as an abrasive for destroying the waxy coating of the bug. When the waxy layer is destroyed, the bug loses water uncontrollably via evaporation and then dies of dehydration.

On the other hand, natural means are safe for you, your kids and even pets. Moreover, they usually provide a wide range of solutions for silverfish. There are also different types of traps that are available in stores or even homemade ones. If you do not wish to visit the store to purchase products, it is possible for you to make your own trap inexpensively. For instance, you can take a jar and then surround the outside of the jar with masking tape or even hockey tape. When you are done, leave it in a common area for silverfish with some bread at the bottom. They will climb up the jar, fall inside and will not be able to leave the jar. You may also want to consider investing in general sticky traps which attract bugs and they get stuck. These are simple but effective methods of getting rid of these common bugs.